From CNN, Jan. 5:

Television evangelist Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed.

"He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America,'" Robertson told viewers of his long-running television show, "The 700 Club."

"God says, 'This land belongs to me, and you'd better leave it alone,'" he said.

On Jan. 5 at approximately 4 PM armed “civilians

Following a ruling this week by the Supreme Court, José Padilla has finally appeared before a civilian judge—which means that the high court will likely not have to weigh in any time soon on whether he was held legally as an "enemy combatant" under the US constitution. From the AP, Jan. 5:

The gas pipeline to the Uch power plant in the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan was blown up late Jan. 3, cutting off gas supplies to the plant. The attack came as sporadic rocket and artillery duels continued between Pakistani security forces and Baluch insurgents in the town of Dera Bugti.

About 40 people were killed and 50 wounded in an apparent suicide bomb blast in the Iraqi Shi'ite holy city of Karbala Jan. 5. The explosion occurred in an area between the two main Shi'ite shrines in the city. Many of the casualties were street vendors and visitors to the Imam Hussein shrine, one of the holiest for Shi'ite Muslims. Shi'ite pilgrims often make their way to Karbala on Thursdays to be at the holy site for prayers the next day. The last large-scale attack in Karbala occurred in December 2004 when 14 were killed and 57 wounded by a car bomb. (CBC, SBS, Jan. 5) The Iranian official news agency IRNA reports that four Iranian nationals were killed and 13 injured in the Karbala blast.

US pilots targeting a farmhouse in the northern town of Baiji where they apparently believed insurgents had taken shelter killed a family of 12, Iraqi officials said Jan. 3. The dead included women and children whose bodies were recovered in the nightclothes and blankets they had been evidently sleeping in. The Pentagon says that it does not count civilian deaths from US attacks, and that investigating deaths caused by any one strike is impractical in dangerous insurgent areas.

A US military statement said that an unmanned drone detected three men digging a hole in a nearby road. Insurgents regularly bury bombs along roads in the area. The three men were tracked to a building, which US forces then hit with precision-guided missiles, the statement said. (Boston Globe, Jan. 4)

From the Jerusalem Post, Jan. 1:

The United States government reportedly began coordinating with NATO its plans for a possible military attack against Iran.

The German newspaper Der Tagesspiegel collected various reports from the German media indicating that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are examining the prospects of such a strike.

According to the report, CIA Director Porter Goss, in his last visit to Turkey on December 12, requested Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to provide military bases to the United States in 2006 from where they would be able to launch an assault.

From the BBC, Jan. 3:

Hundreds of Indian tribespeople have blocked a main road in Orissa state, a day after police opened fire during protests over a planned steel mill. At least 12 tribals and a policeman died in clashes at Kalinganagar, 120km (80 miles) north of Bhubaneswar. Police say they fired in self-defence after they were attacked with arrows.

The tribesmen have now handed over for post mortems the bodies of four of their dead which they had used to block the road, but are refusing to move. The road block has brought traffic in the area to a complete halt and seriously affected the movement of iron ore from the mineral-rich Keonjhar district.